Research evaluating benefits of Parent-Child Mother Goose


Since the program’s beginnings, a number of academics from institutions across Canada and Australia have investigated the effectiveness of the Parent-Child Mother Goose Program, developing an extensive evidence base attesting to the power of song, rhyme and story. 

Research on Parent-Child Mother Goose

Parent-Child Mother Goose Program Research
by Weber N., 2018 

This study are based on transcripts of three focus groups attended by 17 past or present Parent-Child Mother Goose facilitators, and on 51 sets of pre-program and post-program questionnaires including questions on demographics, attachment, parent self-efficacy and emotion regulation. Parents or care-givers completed the questionnaires before and after a 10 week program of Parent-Child Mother Goose.

The study finds that Parent-Child Mother Goose supports parents and families raising young children by:
  • Promoting positive parent-child relationships
  • Increasing parent’s confidence and emotion regulation skills, and
  • Developing social support systems for parents.

The study also provides insights into how facilitators' actual practices lead to these outcomes. Among other things, the study notes that the Parent-Child Mother Goose program "seems to encourage an almost meditative or mindful approach to parents dealing with stressful situations." 

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Exploring the Impacts of the Parent-Child Mother Goose Program
by Weber, N.
Masters of Science Thesis, University of Alberta, 2018.

This thesis is a full write-up of the research described by the same author in Parent-Child Mother Goose Research (listed above above).

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Once Upon A Time: Lessons Learned from the Benefits of Parent-Child Mother Goose
by Ling, Tibbets, Scharfe
Child Welfare, 2017, 95(2)

This interview-based study of 25 mothers who attended Parent-Child Mother Goose programs reports their overwhelmingly positive experiences in the program. Specifically:
  • The mothers reported that Parent-Child Mother Goose helped facilitate bonding with their child
  • The mothers saw the program as a resource for gaining new parenting skills
  • The mothers saw the program as an important outlet for socialization
  • The mothers spoke warmly of program facilitators, and
  • The mothers expressed the wish that they could have attended more program sessions than they were allocated

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A Preliminary Evaluation of the Parent-Child Mother Goose Program in relation to Children’s Language and Parenting Stress
Gill Terrett, Roxanne White and Michèle Spreckley
Journal of Early Childhood Research published online 12 October 2012

This study assessed changes in children’s language skills and parenting stress following participation in a Parent-Child Mother Goose program. Results revealed that the PCMGP children showed greater improvement in language skills, especially their expressive communication skills. The parents participating also reported a more positive impact on their perceptions of their child’s demandingness compared to the comparison playgroup parents. This study highlights the potential effectiveness of the PCMGP as an early intervention program in relation to aspects of both receptive and expressive language and parental stress.

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Benefits of Mother Goose: Influence of a Community-Based Program on Parent-Child Attachment Relationships in Typical Families
by Elaine Scharfe, Trent University
Child Welfare Journal, 2011, vol. 90, No. 5.

In this study of the effects of the Parent-Child Mother Goose program on parent-child attachment, parents participating in the program completed self-assessments of their parenting efficacy, satisfaction, and relationships with their children.  Participants reported significantly more positive change in parenting efficacy and child attachment than did parents in a control group. “In this popular 10-week, community-based program, parents learned skills that continued to influence their relationship with their children six months after the conclusion of the project.”

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Bowness Montgomery Parent-Child Mother Goose Program
Sangha, K., McLean, C., & Spark, K. 2009 

This small study of five early childhood practitioners sought to determine the effects of the Parent-Child Mother Goose program on the community in which it was run by asking open-ended questions addressing:
Impact of P-CMG program on facilitator 
  • Impact on families
  • Impace on early literacy
  • Impact on the community
The study contains an extensive review of arguments that P-CMG can play a significant role in promoting early literacy.

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Impact of Parent-Child Mother Goose: mothers’ perceptions and experiences of singing to their infants aged 6-28 months
Deborah Weiss, University of Victoria, Master’s Thesis, 2006

This study explores mothers’ perceptions and experiences of singing to their infants and participating in Parent-Child Mother Goose; a community-based parent support program that  supports the use of infant-directed singing as a means to enhance the mother-infant relationship. Mothers in the study completed self-administered questionnaires relating to singing to their infants and completed interviews with the researcher. The data revealed a number of interrelated themes including:
  • experiencing bonding/connection with one’s infant
  • infant-directed singing as a means to regulate infant and maternal emotions, and
  • infant-directed singing as a means to communicate information to one’s infant.
The mothers also experienced benefits participating in Parent-Child Mother Goose.

Read the study.


What Does Research Tell Us?

Based on work done by Anjula Joshi, Ph.D. Student, UBC, 2006, this short document summarises the findings of eight studies into the effectiveness of Parent-Child Mother Goose conducted in Canada and Australia between 1997 and 2005 under the headings:
  • Impact on child development
  • Impact on parents
  • Impact on the parent-child relationship
Authors of the summary are Beth Hutchinson and Dana Brynelsen, leading figures in the Canadian Parent-Child Mother Goose community.

Read the research summary.


Parents' Perception of the Effects of the Parent-Child Mother Goose Program on their Parenting Practices, Carroll A.C., Masters of Science Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2005

This interview-based study explores 11 parents' perceptions of the effect of Parent-Child Mother Goose on their parenting practices.

The study finds these parents perceived themselves as being more effective in their interactions with their child(ren, and therefore more competent in their parenting role, after participating in the the Parent-Child Mother Goose program. The parents attributed their increased effectiveness in their parenting to the knowledge and skills they gained from participation in the program and to the support they got from interacting with other parents who were participants in the program.

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TLC3 Vancouver Project Final Report
Formosa, S., Heinz, L. & Lieber, L. (2003).

This 70 page report provides a comprehensive and multi-dimensional evaluation the TLC3 Vancouver Project, part of a five-year national Canadian project designed to enhance language and cognitive development in children from birth to 5 years. 

Staff from multiple organizations provided Parent-Child Mother Goose programs, while speech pathologists administered standardized developmental assessment measures for the children of 54 families when they began in the Parent-Child Mother Goose program, when they left the program, and, for, 24 families, a year after they left the program. 

Among other things, the report shows that children participating in the Project demonstrated statistically significant pre-test/post-test improvements in the speech and symbolic domains on both the CSBS – Caregiver Questionnaire and the CSBS – DP – Behaviour Sample that could be attributed to the children’s experience in the Project. 

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​
A Preliminary Evaluation of The Parent-Child Mother Goose Program as a Family Literacy Program.
Canadian Institute of Child Health. 2001.

Based on interviews with both facilitators and participants in five P-CMG programs, this qualitative study found that parent participants liked and valued:
  • the oral emphasis of the program,
  • the emphasis on positive parent-child interaction, 
  • the language-rich environment promoted by the program and the acceptance and warmth experienced at the programs. 
The facilitators observed that participation in the Parent-Child Mother Goose Program in many cases promoted positive language-based interactions between parents and children, and reported from their own experience as parents that the program encouraged a culture of literacy among families. The teachers presented a picture of the Parent-Child Mother Goose Program as a successful and effective family literacy program, contributing to family well being in a variety of ways.

​Read the study

​
Parent Child Mother Goose Program Pilot Research Study: Preliminary Findings
National Centre for the Prevention of Crime (2001)

A pilot study of 13 experimental group participants and 13 comparison group participants aimed at assessing the feasibility of conducting a larger experimental study to determine the effectiveness of Parent-Child Mother Goose in
  • Providing social support to care-givers
  • Enhancing the perceived parental competence of care-givers, and
  • Enhancing the coping skills of care-givers
The pilot study used four self-administered instruments, administered at a before/after interval of seven weeks in most cases. The pilot study list seven recommendations for making a larger experimental study feasible

Read the pilot study


Other papers of interest

The effects of mother–infant singing on emotional closeness, affect, anxiety, and stress hormones. Fancourt, Daisy & Perkins, Rosie. (2018).  Music & Science. 1. 205920431774574. 10.1177/2059204317745746. 

This within-subjects study, comparing the effects of mother–infant singing with other mother–infant interactions among 43 mothers and their infants, shows that singing is associated with greater increases in maternal perceptions of emotional closeness in comparison to social interactions. Mother–infant singing is also associated with greater increases in positive affect and greater decreases in negative affect as well as greater decreases in both psychological and biological markers of anxiety. 

Quote: "This is, to our knowledge, the first quantitative experimental demonstration that a single session of singing can modulate maternal perceptions of mother–infant closeness."

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Supported playgroups for parents and children: The evidence for their benefits
Commerford, J., & Robinson, E. (2016).
CFCA Paper No. 40. Melbourne: Child Family Community Australia information exchange, Australian Institute of Family Studies.

Supported playgroups are playgroups run by a paid facilitator that aim to support families with particular vulnerabilities or needs. Supported playgroups focus on supporting the development and wellbeing of both parents and children. Many also aim to help parents and children to transition to community (i.e., self-managed, unsupported) playgroups.

This paper defines the types of supported playgroups and varying models of implementation in operation in Australia, and assesses the evaluation evidence for their benefits to parents and children. It considers supported playgroup as a soft entry point to other services, and looks to research and evaluation studies that identify important components of supported playgroups.

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Well-being and hospitalized children: can music help? Longhi, E., Pickett, N. Hargreaves, D. J. (2013). Psychology of Music. August 12, 2013 doi: 10.1177/0305735613499781

In this study conducted at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London, 37 pediatric patients with cardiac and/or respiratory problems aged between 7 days and 4 years participated in three 10 minute sessions comprising (a) listening to a researcher (live) singing lullabies to a guitar accompaniment (b) listening to a researcher (live) reading children's stories (c) no interaction. Both the heart rate and pain level of the infants decreased significantly after the singing/listening sessions, but not after the other sessions.

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The Secrets of Success? How Charitable Funders Use and Share Evidence in Practice 
by Ravenscroft, C.
Alliance for Useful Evidence, 2013.

Do funders know enough about what works - and what doesn’t - to make good decisions? This paper looks at how a small group of UK funders use and share evidence in practice: what evidence they draw on; how they find and use it, and how they share evidence to inform the future decisions of others – funders, practitioners, policymakers.

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